But again, VERY possible as long as you take it seriously and stay motivated to make it work.

On top of that, you’re going to need to invest in a few blogging resources and actually implement those strategies onto your blog if you want to make money faster than most bloggers!

I personally made A LOT of mistakes as a new blogger, but as soon as I invested in those e-courses and e-books, I started to see money coming in! I got back WAY more than what I spent on my investment!

You can actually view all the blogging tools and resources you need as a beginner blogger at the bottom of this post. It’s personally what I used to get to where I am now. Plus, it’s at a VERY low cost to get started!

I’ll be honest to let you know that it will take time and a lot of learning to actually see results! But it is SO worth it in the end!

– “15 Dollar Store Organization Hacks That Will Save Your Life From Clutter”

As long as there are people searching for answers, there will always be demand for your content! I generally use the Keywords Everywhere tool to give me some clues. And don’t think that no one wants to read your blog just because there are similar ones that already exist.

The way you write, the stories you tell, and how you deliver your message is what sets you apart from everyone else.

No ONE person is going to have the exact same struggles or experiences as you!

Think about it this way…

There are 24 hours within a day and a gazillion people in this world. People can never consume too much or have enough. As long as there’s good content (for your target audience), readers are always going to be hungry for more!

Top money making blogs

There’s actually a lot to list and that would be too long to name them here!

But to give you several examples, here are the blogs that bring in an amazing monthly income!

Note that the numbers fluctuate and blogging income will always be volatile.

– Huffington Post: $900,000

– Mashable: $480,000

– TechCrunch: $450,000

– Money Saving Expert: $110,000

– Smart Passive Income: $150,000

– Making Sense of Cents: $130,000

– Lifehacker: $130,000

– Dollar Sprout: $100,000

– Pinch of Yum: $95,000

– Busy Budgeter: $86,000

– Show Me The Yummy: $32,000

– ClubThrifty: $25,000

How much money do bloggers make?

I know, I know…

The list I just provided is extremely overwhelming to look at and very unrealistic for new bloggers (like myself) and those who haven’t started yet.

But like I said at the beginning of this post, you don’t need to aim for $10,000, $20,000, $500,000 or $1,000,000+ per month!

So, you may be asking realistically how much money can you make blogging?

What if you could make $100 to $1,000 in extra income each month just from blogging? Imagine what that money can do for you. It could help you cover some of your living expenses like your utility bills, cable, insurance, groceries, and much more!

Do not go for a free blogging platform!

Some of you might be thinking of starting a blog for free on WordPress.com or Blogger. DO NOT go that route!

It would be near impossible to make money when you sign up for a free blog because no one will take you seriously.

On top of that, applying to ad networks and affiliate programs will be extremely tough.

If your intention is to make money blogging, you will want to start your blog the correct way by following my easy step-by-step tutorial here. You will thank yourself for doing this!

WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org

This leads to my next point.

I get many e-mails from readers who say “I already have WordPress.com, but what’s this WordPress.org that Bluehost is asking me to install? I think I already have WordPress?”

Here are my answers to clarify any confusion…

WordPress.com

This is a free platform and you actually DON’T own your blog. That means they can remove any data or content you create on this platform because it is NOT self-hosted by you.

If you are blogging as a hobby or NOT planning to make any money from it, then using WordPress.com is all you need.

WordPress.org

On the other hand, with WordPress.org, you OWN your blog and you have full control when you go self-hosted with a web hosting company like Bluehost.

When you sign up for Bluehost, they will make it easy for you to install WordPress.org with their 1-click installation. And yes, WordPress.org is FREE when you go self-hosted with a hosting company like Bluehost.

It took me many months before I got my first paycheck from Google which was a couple of hundred dollars.

Here’s a screenshot of Google Adsense earnings for August 2018:

Once your blog traffic increases, you’ll be able to work with ad management companies like Mediavine, which I highly recommend because they are TRULY amazing! Words cannot express how AWESOME they are!

When I grew my blog traffic to ~30,000 page views (25,000 sessions) simply by using these Pinterest tips, I was qualified to apply for Mediavine. This allowed me to earn about 5X the amount compared to Google Adsense!

Mediavine’s customer service is beyond amazing because they promptly answer all of your questions and even help you with ad placement to optimize your earnings! 😀

With that said, I went from making ~$0 to a couple hundred, and now at least $1,000 USD per month just with display advertising alone!

⭐️ I have to say it’s mostly thanks to this AWESOME Pinterest e-book that taught me how to drive a HUGE amount of traffic to my blog using Pinterest! And we’re talking about over 100,000 monthly page views today!

Here’s a screenshot of my Mediavine earnings in USD for October 2018:

2. Affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing is one of my favorite ways to make money!

Why?

Because no matter how small your blog is (or how little your traffic you’re getting at the beginning), anyone can start making money with affiliate marketing immediately!

You DON’T need 100,000 monthly page views to start monetizing!

You can get started with affiliate marketing as soon as you start your blog and write your first 5 to 10 posts!

For those who are new to blogging, you may be wondering what is affiliate marketing?

To answer your question…

🗣 You basically recommend or promote a product you love and/or believe would benefit your readers (by using your affiliate or referral link).

When the reader makes a purchase or signs up to something, you’ll get rewarded with a commission at NO extra cost to your reader.

An example of how I make money with affiliate marketing.

Since my blog focuses on personal finance, I like to blog about the best ways to save money and make money.

One of my favorite ways to help readers is by writing posts about the best money-saving tools I personally use to help me save money every day.

For example, I like to talk about free resources like Ebates and Drop.

If you haven’t heard about them, you should click on those links to check out my honest reviews. You could save a pretty good amount of money each year with those resources. The best part is they’re 100% FREE and doesn’t cost my reader anything!

In fact, when they (or you) sign up, I earn a referral bonus (usually between $1 to $25); and my readers will receive a $5 to $10 welcome bonus just for signing up!

There are many bloggers who are able to make over thousands of dollars each month just by linking recommended products to Amazon.

For example, if I’m a blog that talks about home furniture and I recommend THIS nightstand product to my readers, I will earn a commission when the reader clicks on my special link and purchases a cart full of stuff on Amazon.

Yes, you can make money even when the reader (who clicks on that special link) doesn’t buy the exact product that the blogger recommends.

So, instead of buying that recommended nightstand, the reader may decide to purchase something else completely random like a pair of shorts or underwear.

In the end, you would still earn a small commission from Amazon on the pair of shorts and underwear that your reader buys.

After reading all of that, you may think affiliate marketing sounds simple.

I’ll tell you that it really isn’t!

If that were true, every blogger would become a millionaire overnight!

You can’t just place affiliate links all over your blog posts or social media and expect someone to buy from you.

Affiliate marketing is very effective when you are 100% honest about your product reviews.

As I mentioned, the great thing about affiliate marketing is that anyone can start using it despite how new their blog is.

I love using affiliate marketing as a monetization strategy on my blog because I can recommend almost any product that I think will be useful for my readers.

Plus, if I’m already enjoying the product, I may as well mention it to my readers because it could help or benefit them as well! Again, it’s a win-win for everyone! 😊

⭐️ If you are interested in learning more about affiliate marketing, I highly recommend taking Michelle’s Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing e-course. The course instructor consistently makes over $50,000 each month with affiliate marketing. This is the e-course that helped me make over $3,000 per month with affiliate marketing alone!

3. Selling your own products and services

This is a fantastic way to make money from your blog. Instead of selling other people’s products through affiliate marketing, you can create your own products or services and sell directly to your readers and followers.

On top of that, you can also offer your services online such as 1-on-1 coaching, social media services, Pinterest Virtual Assistant, freelance writing, web design and so much more!

4. Sponsored posts

I left this for last because I don’t personally have experience with this.

I’ve learned that companies don’t pay very much when you have a smaller audience (this is likely the case for beginners). Also, keep in mind that if it takes you a long time to write an article, the return on investment (ROI) may not be as high as implementing some affiliate marketing strategies on your blog.

If you’re interested, you can still make money through sponsored posts!

Regardless of how little you get paid as a beginner, everyone has to start from somewhere.

Companies will pay you a flat fee for mentioning or writing a review about their product on your blog.

Like affiliate marketing, you should be 100% genuine and honest when you are writing a sponsored post. You can land a sponsored post opportunity when you directly reach out to the company and pitch them your ideas.

Use Pinterest traffic to make money blogging

Yes, you’re going to need some traffic if you want to make more money with your blog.

And do you wanna know the brand new blogger’s secret weapon to driving massive traffic?

📌 Pinterest.

I know some of you may be raising your eyebrow at me thinking, “Say whaaa? Pinterest? Isn’t that just a hub for cutesy crafts, pink unicorns, and pretty decor?” 🦄

Yes, it’s true that the DIY, crafts, gift guides, home organization, parenting, home decor, etc. type of blogs do extremely well on Pinterest. But you’ll be surprised at the amount of traffic you can get onto your blog if you learn how to use the platform correctly.

This affordable Pinterest e-book that I purchased taught me everything a beginner needs to know. I promise that it’s jam-packed with a lot of valuable information that’s worth WAY more than the sticker price of the book!

But seriously, who would’ve thought a blog about money and personal finance could get traffic views from Pinterest?

Again, it’s not to say you’re going to get-rich-quick overnight (and there are no guarantees), but it is a lot easier to get Pinterest traffic compared to Google when you’re a brand new blogger with no authority!

Once you become familiar with Pinterest, it’s time to focus on your Google traffic, which I talk more about later.

🌟 My traffic increased from 0 to 20,000 monthly page views within less than six months. Right after that, I was getting over 40,000 page views per month in July 2018 all because I dived right into using Pinterest!

At the time of writing, my monthly page views increased to over 100,000!

I get e-mails from many bloggers asking me what my secrets are. I honestly don’t have any secrets and I’m far from being any Pinterest expert!

However, I know that following the EXACT tips from Ana’s e-book, Making Pinterest Possible has been working well for me so far. This is the resource you NEED if you’re a brand new blogger who is not very familiar with Pinterest!

❤ Ana was sweet to provide me a special voucher for my readers. For a limited time, you can use the code, TSA5OFF, towards her e-book and get $5 off when you purchase her e-book here! The price is very affordable and you get a TON of value in Ana’s resource! I am so happy that I invested in her e-book when I was a beginner! 🙂

Make money blogging without a huge following

There’s a myth that you need everyone on the planet to follow you and a million page views to make money blogging.

I know it’s hard to get over that thinking, but as I said, you need to keep an open mind and tell yourself it’s possible!

I, myself, used to think that you need a huge following; and that you need to be popular in order to make money online.

Well, I was wrong, and I’m SO glad I gave this “blogging thing” a chance.

After having this small blog for over a year, I can tell you for a fact that none of those myths are true.

I was able to make my first $100 blogging with under 300 followers on Pinterest. And I made my first $1,000 with under 800 followers.

And those probably weren’t even my real followers (more like spammers following you hoping you would follow back), haha… so you could think of me having close to 0 followers at that time!

👉 Spoiler alert: though nice to have, your number of followers (at least on Pinterest) don’t really matter all that much. This metric doesn’t determine how much money you’ll make.

Let me ask you a question: Are you here to be popular online, or to make money online? 💵💵💵

[If you’re reading this, I think the answer is obvious, haha]. 🤑

I also want to point out that I rarely (almost never) used Twitter. I don’t even pay attention to Instagram or Facebook! It was too much and I didn’t want to spread myself thin.

When I first started my blog, I heard SO many amazing things about Pinterest, and that’s why I focused most of my efforts on it to drive massive traffic to my blog.

BTW, it’s not to say that followers don’t matter at all.

You will need to build a good amount of followers, but not just any followers. The key is to build true and loyal followers over time as you create more content, gain trust, and establish some authority. As a new blogger, these are things I’m still working on. 🙂

💡 PRO TIP: Choose ONE platform and learn it well. Focusing your effort on one thing at a time will yield you higher returns than you trying to be mediocre at everything. I don’t want to sound biased, but Pinterest seems to be most bloggers’ favorite weapon! Trust me, LESS is really more!

After making all those statements, my whole point is to tell you that I’m a no-name blog with very little followers, but I’m still able to make a few to several thousand dollars every month! Overall, I want to let you know that making money with a small and personal blog is possible!

Work on your Google SEO strategies ASAP!

I know you’re here because you were searching the following questions on Google:

– How to make money blogging

– How to make money blogging for beginners

– How do beginner bloggers make money?

– How much money do bloggers make?

– Can you really make money blogging?

– How to make money blogging from home

Chances are you landed on this page because you found me on Pinterest, or because you’re one of my e-mail subscribers.

Not because you found me on Google — hah, I wish!

And to be honest, you’re probably not going to be able to find me on Google (at the time I write this) because I made the biggest mistake ever when I first started my blog…

Can you guess what that mistake is?

Not learning or implementing Google SEO strategies sooner.

If you’re new to this, you’re probably scratching your head wondering, “What is SEO”?

This stands for “search engine optimization”.

All that means is learning how to rank higher on Google (ultimately on page 1) so that you or your blog post could be found by readers; hence giving you organic traffic from Google searches.

I know I just gave you the whole speech about how it’s much easier to drive a ton of traffic and start making money with your blog by leveraging Pinterest. I also said focusing your efforts on one platform at a time is the key to seeing great results.

If I had to do this all over again, the only thing I would change is spending a bit more time learning how to optimize my blog posts for Google.

Why?

Because it takes time for Google to recognize and rank you. You’re not authoritative in Google’s eyes when you’re a new blogger and that’s why you need to slowly build a good relationship with Google right from the get-go by following Google’s best practices for the long term.

At the end of the day, it’s important to diversify your traffic sources (e.g. Pinterest, Google, e-mail subscribers, etc.) if you want to reduce your risks and continue making money with your blog.

For example, if you focus 100% on one traffic source like Twitter, your earnings could potentially vanish overnight if Twitter somehow goes away.

Again, I’m not here to scare you.

I’ve been alive so far making over a few thousand dollars each month just by focusing my efforts on Pinterest (knock on wood 🤛). But now that I’m over a year into my blogging journey, I’m learning how to diversify my traffic to reduce those risks.

I kept expenses low as a beginner blogger

As I said at the beginning of this post, I didn’t really make any money (other than that first $1.45 from Google Adsense).

I was still learning how to use WordPress and how to write and structure my blog posts. Gosh, I didn’t even know how to properly insert a featured image on my post!

At that time, I didn’t even know what “affiliate marketing” or “sponsored posts” meant. I thought bloggers made money just from having ads on their blogs. Even with that idea, I didn’t know how ads really worked!

I was writing one blog post a week for many months with no structure nor plan (this is where I REALLY wished the e-course Stupid Simple SEO existed).

I had no idea what I was doing and that’s when I researched into a few top-notch blogging resources (see below). These were the resources I used to help me make my first $500+ per month. I eventually made over $5,000 per month with those exact resources!

The good thing is I didn’t have to spend a lot when I was a total beginner. I just regret not doing it sooner!

I feel your pain especially when you don’t have a lot of money to spend; or when you just want to try it out without spending a fortune.

My very short list of blogging tools and resources that you need as a beginner blogger:

1. 🖥 Basic Bluehost Plan – For just $2.95 a month (again, this low price is only through my link), you can start your blog and monetize it through display advertising, affiliate marketing, sponsored posts, creating your own products, and more. Again, you will NEED to go self-hosted if you want to make money blogging.

3. 💵 Making Sense of Affiliate Marketing ($197) – I jumped the gun and focused most of my efforts here. It’s the course you NEED if you want to master your affiliate marketing strategies as a beginner. I immediately made $400-$500 each month right after implementing the strategies taught in this e-course (April 2018).

Then, I eventually made over $3,000 USD per month alone with affiliate marketing in less than a year of taking Michelle’s course.

4. 📌 📈 Making Pinterest Possible ($35) – This is the most affordable and valuable Pinterest e-book that I know of. It’s the resource that helped me reach over 40,000 monthly page views. I eventually hit over 100,000 page views using the Pinterest strategies taught in this e-book.

5. 🗓 Tailwind Scheduler for Pinterest ($10 per month) – Before using Tailwind, I was manually pinning with Carly’s Manual Pinterest Strategies to get 20,000 monthly page views (BTW, I only recommend Carly’s e-course for intermediate bloggers and those who don’t want to pay for Tailwind).

AFTER using Tailwind and following Ana’s Pinterest strategies (for beginner bloggers), my traffic increased to over 40,000 monthly page views, and eventually more than 100,000 monthly page views. As a result, I was qualified to work with Mediavine which allowed me to make $1,000+ USD per month with display advertising.

6. 🎨 Canva – This is my favorite tool to use for designing Pinterest pins. You don’t have to be a graphic designer or pro to make pretty pins like this! It’s super easy to use; plus, it’s free! 🙂

There are a few more blogging resources and tools I invested in, but I only purchased them after when my blog was making more money. I realized that it was time for me to invest back into the blog. If you’re interested, feel free to check out my recommendations page here which I will update.

For beginner bloggers, I recommend keeping things simple at the beginning (especially when you’re on a tight budget)! I’m actually STILL using a free blog theme and I know I should upgrade it, but I haven’t had time yet!

Always test and experiment!

There’s no one-size-fits-all answer to how you make money with a blog.

I also want to mention that every blogger’s journey is going to be different.

Each blogger isn’t going to have the exact same audience, so things are going to work differently for everyone.

That’s why it’s important to keep testing different things and strategies until something finally clicks!

I was extremely frustrated when I was a few to several months into my blogging journey because I was struggling to make my first $1,000. But by following the strategies taught in the blogging resources I listed above, along with having a lot of persistence, I saw results faster than I could have imagined!

Start your blog today!

After reading all of this, some of you may either be extremely excited or nervous about starting your blog.

For the nervous people, you may be asking, “What if it doesn’t work out?”

I know EXACTLY how that feels because I was in that same position!

In fact, most people are (even the one who are feeling extremely excited)!

To be very honest with you, I’m STILL somewhat nervous about my blog because no one can predict what will happen in the future!

Nothing in life is certain, and I was only willing to try it out because it’s so cheap to start a blog.

It only costs $2.95 per month to get started; plus, you get a FREE domain name. (This low price is only through my link. I don’t know when this deal ends, so you will have to act quick to get this special price along with the FREE domain name!)

I personally went with the most basic plan as a brand new blogger.

My initial thoughts were…

If it doesn’t work out, at least I know I tried it — it’s WAY better than wondering and not taking the leap. I’ve always told myself that life is too short to keep wondering!

Hey Ling, I’ve been reading your posts since last year when you made just over $700! It’s amazing to see your progress! I just recently took Michelle’s course too and am implementing those strategies! Keep up with the posts – they’re wonderful 🙂

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About Finsavvy Panda

Welcome to Finsavvy Panda!I love everything about saving, investing, earning, and building net worth. I’m all for flexibility and balance, so I’d love ❤ to help you do all of this without having to deprive yourself! Since Oct 2016, my boyfriend and I have been working towards freeing ourselves from corporate bullsh!t to become financially independent. If you want to hop on the happiness boat, come join us!